Self-study
Acquiring complete detailed information about all the pros and cons of a product one might purchase would clearly be difficult and expensive. ██ ██ ████████ ███ ██ ███████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███ ██████████ █████████ ███ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ███████████ ███ ███████ ████████ ███████████
Summary
The author concludes that consumers who don’t bother to acquire complete detailed info about all pros/cons are behaving rationally.
This is based on the following premise:
If you don’t expect that the benefits of acquiring the complete info will outweigh the cost and difficulty of acquiring that info, then it’s rational not to acquire the info.
Missing Connection
The premise allows us to reach the conclusion that not acquiring complete detailed info is rational — if you don’t expect the benefits of getting that info to outweigh the costs and difficulty of getting the info, it’s rational not to get the info. We want to learn that consumers who don’t bother to get the info do not expect the benefits of getting the info to outweigh the costs and difficulty of getting the info.
26.
The conclusion of the argument ██ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
Rational consumers who ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████████ █████ █ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████████
(A) tells me about what rational consumers do. But we’re trying to prove that a certain kind of consumer IS rational. Learning something about what rational consumers do doesn’t prove that someone is rational.
b
Whenever it is ████████ ███ ██ ███████ ████████ ███████████ █████ █ ████████ ██ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████████
(B) tells us what’s true “whenever it is rational not to acquire detailed info about a product.” But we’re trying to prove that it’s rational not to acquire such info. Learning about what would be true WHEN it’s rational not to get such info doesn’t establish that it IS rational not to get the info.
c
The benefits of █████████ ████████ ███████████ █████ █ ███████ ███ █████ ████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███
Whether the benefits actually outweigh the costs is irrelevant, because the premise concerns someone’s EXPECTATIONS about whether the benefits outweigh the costs. What matters is what consumers who don’t get complete info EXPECT about benefits/costs.
d
Rational consumers usually ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████████ █████ █ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███
(D) tells me about what rational consumers expect. But we’re trying to prove that a certain kind of consumer IS rational. Learning something about what rational consumers expect doesn’t prove that someone is rational.
e
Consumers who do ███ ██████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████████ ███████████ █████ █ ███████ ████ █████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ███ ████████ ██ █████████ ████ ███████████ ████ ████████ ███ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ███
(E) tells us that consumers who don’t get complete info do not expect the benefits of getting the info to outweigh the costs/difficulty of getting it. This triggers the rule in the premise and allows us to conclude that for these consumers, it’s rational not to acquire the info.